Mason comment on KFAN yesterday (11/9)

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Sparlimb

Sparlimb

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Mason was asked during his afternoon segment with Dan Barreiro if he had it to do over again, what would he have done dfferently. He gave a very honest answer, which was "leave." He was non-comittal on where, but it is safe to assue either LSU or Michigan St who both pursued him. I can't blame him for the answer, as he said he wasn't ready to stop coaching but Maturi made the decision anyway. I'm not meaning to start a thread re-hashing for the 1000th time whether firing him was the right or wrong decision.

Rather, what I'd like to ask as I ponder it myself, is do you think our perception of Mason would have changed if he had gone to LSU? Would we see him as another good coach that abandoned us? I'm trying hard not to remember how it ended, but how it would have felt half way through. We don't know how he would have done at LSU, but I bet pretty well. Interesting to think about....

I think any success he had elsewhere would really have been tough to handle. It easily could have been another Holtz all over again. Not sure Mase would have won a national title at LSU, but he would have been in the right part of the country to get top talent. I think often when coaches leave you wonder what would have happened if he'd stayed. Well in this case, he did stay and now wondering what if it went the other way...
 

Interesting comment. I have mixed feelings for Mason, but they are mostly positive. My sense at the time he was still coach was that he didn't actually have an offer from OSU, MSU, or LSU. I thought he was hoping to get an offer, but never did. Maybe he had an offer from a lower level school though?

I'm sure that we would have put him on a pedestal, just like you would put a girlfriend who you were thinking of breaking up with, but broke up with you first on a pedestal.
 

Tough to say what the perception of him would have been if he had left. In terms of abandonment it probably would have been influenced a lot by what year he left and what kind of shape he left the program in. Can't remember which seasons the MSU and LSU flirtations took place in. I know the OSU mess was in 2000. I think if he had gotten the OSU job he would have been really successful there. He would have been extremely motivated, his staff recruited the state of Ohio well and can you imagine the offensive system he used with elite athletes running it....
 

I call bullsh*t.

Mason would have left if a better job presented itself. He had too thin a skin for Minnesota, how would he have dealt with the pressures of LSU?

Enough also with the offensive genius stuff. For 4 years of his 20 year tenure as a head coach, he had a dominant running game. That 4 years also coincided with having 4 NFL running backs and the right offensive line. Once we had to rely on a Pinnix type back it was no longer dominant.

If anyone had any faith that he could replicate the Barber/Maroney offense, he would have found a job after Minnesota.

I think Glen is good on tv/radio and happy with it.
 

I heard that too. If he got an offer from LSU, and he didn't go, he's an enormous idiot. Which leads me to believe that he never had an offer at all.
 


Although I agreed with the firing of Mason, I have grown to really like him because of his support of Kill. I think he had every right to be upset about getting fired because he did take a dismal program and bring it to respectability. In addition, after seeing how Brewster did, it appeared that the firing had a negative effect on the fb program. However, now that his replacement has been fired and his grudge against the U has seem to have gone away. With that said, I do not think that going to MSU or LSU was ever a possibility. They may have considered him, but I do not believe that he would have ever extended him an offer. I think some proof of that is the fact he was never offered a position following his termination. It is my belief that had he been given another coaching opportunity at a respectable college he would have jumped on it. I think that Mason was a good coach, but I do not think he had the skills to be really considered at an elite fb program like LSU or MSU (I know MSU is not elite, but they are a very good program).
 


My memory was that he was offered the LSU job as well and even agreed to take it before backing off. I could be mixing him up with the zillion other coaches that did the same thing...
 

Winnipegopher said:
I call bullsh*t.

Mason would have left if a better job presented itself. He had too thin a skin for Minnesota, how would he have dealt with the pressures of LSU?

Enough also with the offensive genius stuff. For 4 years of his 20 year tenure as a head coach, he had a dominant running game. That 4 years also coincided with having 4 NFL running backs and the right offensive line. Once we had to rely on a Pinnix type back it was no longer dominant.

If anyone had any faith that he could replicate the Barber/Maroney offense, he would have found a job after Minnesota.

I think Glen is good on tv/radio and happy with it.
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He had a team at Kansas that rushed for 513 yards against Missouri in 1991.

His KU teams had five straight years with over 200 yards rushing per game, three of those over 230 yards per game.

The top two rushers in the history of Jayhawk football played their entire careers under Mason.

Hamner, Redmon,Jackson and Pinnix all rushed for over a 1000 yards in a season under Mason.
 



dpodoll68 said:
I heard that too. If he got an offer from LSU, and he didn't go, he's an enormous idiot. Which leads me to believe that he never had an offer at all.
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Yea, I can't imagine he got an LSU offer and didn't take it. Which leads me to believe, maybe there was mutual interest, but in the end, once LSU did some leg work, found a different candidate to go with.
 

Mason might not have wanted to move because unlike most coaches wives, his was a professional with a dental practice. She already had uprooted her practice once moving to Minnesota and might have not wanted to do it again. Living in the South is also a totally different deal than the Midwest and that could have played a factor as well for a guy and his family who have never lived outside the Midwest.
 

GopherGod said:
Mason might not have wanted to move because unlike most coaches wives, his was a professional with a dental practice. She already had uprooted her practice once moving to Minnesota and might have not wanted to do it again. Living in the South is also a totally different deal than the Midwest and that could have played a factor as well for a guy and his family who have never lived outside the Midwest.
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Must resist temptation to make a "southern dental care" joke. :)
 

It would have been really hard on his eyes, considering all the night games at LSU, to be squinting at the scoreboard as his team blows another seemingly insurmountable lead. The locals would have fed him to Mike the Tiger after about the third time.
 



Lol, we wish you would have left too Glen. Probably the only coach at a BCS school to get ten years with such a pathetic conference record. It's amazing to me that after all these years, he's still not thankful for the staggering amount of time (and money) he was given at Minnesota. When not even the MAC comes calling when you are fired, it's pretty clear what the rest of the nation thinks of your coaching ability.
 

I remember that Michigan State sent a really big deal delegation to Minneapolis in '99 to offer Mason, including the AD and, I think, the president of the university. What happened with that offer, I don't know - Mason always was a tough bargainer (or his agent was). Maybe he's thinking he should have taken that offer, but remember: he accepted, then turned down Georgia when he was at Kansas. He was not an easy man to hire.
 

Just about any decision involving Maturi was a bad one. I liked Coach Mason and thought he should never have been fired. Although his last game against Texas Tech was brutal in that we blew a big lead, in retrospect it wasn't that bad when consider Mike Leach's high-potent offense was relatively unknown at that point in time. If this had been a few later against Leach, no one would have been shocked because Tech was doing it to a lot of teams. 20/20 hindsight. I really respect Coach Mason and really liked it when he said Minnesota was still his team as he is a resident of MN. Thanks Coach Mason for being one of us.

Go Gophers!
 

EG#9 said:
Lol, we wish you would have left too Glen. Probably the only coach at a BCS school to get ten years with such a pathetic conference record. It's amazing to me that after all these years, he's still not thankful for the staggering amount of time (and money) he was given at Minnesota. When not even the MAC comes calling when you are fired, it's pretty clear what the rest of the nation thinks of your coaching ability.
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Not getting another job had more to do with his age then his coaching ability. Just ask Phil Fulmer, Gary Barnett, and Larry Coker who had to take a job building a program from scratch at lowly UTSA just to get another job. Not many coaches are hired in their late 50's or early 60's.
 

Wow!

Great to see the self hatred thing is still in effect. "The only reason Mason stayed is he had no choice"

It can't be that he actually loves MN and wanted to remain the gophers coach? Nope; the reason he stayed was because nobody else wanted him. The truth is Mason was successful at program that those in the profession deemed at he time a losing situation. Of course he was wanted by other programs.

While his wife's career and not wanting to uproot his children played a huge role; it was not hard sell to him to get him to remain here.....like another idiot I know....they actually love the school.
 

If Mason had left for LSU we would have felt abandoned and called him a traitor...but for Mason's career obviously in hindsight it would have been a great decision. He gave an honest answer - have to respect that.
 

All the Mason hate & even though I liked Brewster as a person & think Kill could get us back to respectability... we still haven't gotten back to where we were with Mason. We had an identity for years... our Offense was Top 10 in the nation for several Seasons & our Rushing Attack was always ESPN worthy. Since Mason left we have just become another football team with no identity, no personality & no real recognition even with 2 Bowl Seasons under our belt since he left...

His Defenses were pretty terrible tho...
 

e.bigelow said:
Yea, I can't imagine he got an LSU offer and didn't take it. Which leads me to believe, maybe there was mutual interest, but in the end, once LSU did some leg work, found a different candidate to go with.
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Not hard to believe at all. It was only a few years prior that he had accepted the job at Georgia, another big time SEC job. I have no idea if he was actually offered the job, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.
 

EG#9 said:
Lol, we wish you would have left too Glen. Probably the only coach at a BCS school to get ten years with such a pathetic conference record. It's amazing to me that after all these years, he's still not thankful for the staggering amount of time (and money) he was given at Minnesota. When not even the MAC comes calling when you are fired, it's pretty clear what the rest of the nation thinks of your coaching ability.
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He's had chances to coach again at the D1 level, just no where big enough to convince him to move again. So I would disagree with your assertion...
 

All I know is I was pretty tired of every year the continual will he leave or wont he. That hardly helped the football program either.
 

GopherGod said:
Not getting another job had more to do with his age then his coaching ability. Just ask Phil Fulmer, Gary Barnett, and Larry Coker who had to take a job building a program from scratch at lowly UTSA just to get another job. Not many coaches are hired in their late 50's or early 60's.
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Not many are re-hired (at the same school nonetheless) in their early 70's either.

Sincerely,
Bill Snyder
 

I bet Mason turned down offers to leave Minnesota for a better job. If I remember correctly, I thought people said he didn't want to keep uprooting his family. His family must like it here -- why else would they have stayed around?

I think it's an interesting, honest look back into his life.

But I still can't help but wish that when asked if he could do anything differently, he responded: "The second half against Michigan, you know what game I'm talking about."
 

emann said:
I bet Mason turned down offers to leave Minnesota for a better job. If I remember correctly, I thought people said he didn't want to keep uprooting his family. His family must like it here -- why else would they have stayed around?

I think it's an interesting, honest look back into his life.

But I still can't help but wish that when asked if he could do anything differently, he responded: "The second half against Michigan, you know what game I'm talking about."
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Don't remind us...
sadbron.png
 

emann said:
But I still can't help but wish that when asked if he could do anything differently, he responded: "The second half against Michigan, you know what game I'm talking about."
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Exactly. The problem with Mason was that he cared about himself more than University of Minnesota. He was never all-in here. What would you have done differently? Leave? Seriously? How about put together a defense? How about win a few more games? How about not have late game collapses against Purdue, NW, Texas Tech, NC State, and Michigan? How about spent a little more time recruiting or connecting with high school coaches? How about stay around long enough to coach in the new stadium?

If I'm asked about what I would have done differently during my time with a former employer and my answer is leave, well, that sums up what I think about the former employer and probably why I am no longer there. It's no surprise Glen was fired. Even in hindsight, he wishes he would have left.

Why don't you make up for lost time and leave now Glen. You and your lame bleached teeth - that I hatted seeing in the 4th quarter of games while you stood there perplexed, wishing the clocked ticked down more quickly.

People forget, for a time Glen was among the highest paid coaches in college football (I believe 4th), and for that we got a guy continually looking elsewhere and years afterward, stating publicly, on the radio home of his former team, that his biggest regret is not leaving earlier.

Hopefully this puts to bed any argument over why we canned Mason. He woulda never gotten us over the hump cause he didn't care enough to. Trinket games and "if they want 'em they can have 'em" reaction to our goalposts being taken down by our opponent in our own freaking stadium. Just thinking about this makes me want to see he on the street as I've always wanted to call him out for the DB he is.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Exactly. The problem with Mason was that he cared about himself more than University of Minnesota. He was never all-in here. What would you have done differently? Leave? Seriously? How about put together a defense? How about win a few more games? How about not have late game collapses against Purdue, NW, Texas Tech, NC State, and Michigan? How about spent a little more time recruiting or connecting with high school coaches? How about stay around long enough to coach in the new stadium?

If I'm asked about what I would have done differently during my time with a former employer and my answer is leave, well, that sums up what I think about the former employer and probably why I am no longer there. It's no surprise Glen was fired. Even in hindsight, he wishes he would have left.

Why don't you make up for lost time and leave now Glen. You and your lame bleached teeth - that I hatted seeing in the 4th quarter of games while you stood there perplexed, wishing the clocked ticked down more quickly.

People forget, for a time Glen was among the highest paid coaches in college football (I believe 4th), and for that we got a guy continually looking elsewhere and years afterward, stating publicly, on the radio home of his former team, that his biggest regret is not leaving earlier.

Hopefully this puts to bed any argument over why we canned Mason. He woulda never gotten us over the hump cause he didn't care enough to. Trinket games and "if they want 'em they can have 'em" reaction to our goalposts being taken down by our opponent in our own freaking stadium. Just thinking about this makes me want to see he on the street as I've always wanted to call him out for the DB he is.
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The way he was fired nobody can be upset that his answer was "leave"... you've never been given the boot by an employer & left on bad terms? I doubt there would be anything positive to say about them...
 

Glen Mason:

The first and only Gopher football coach to get fired for beating Iowa.
 


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